Selection this, selection that...
Friday, April 2, 2010 at 5:04PM You might have read West Ham United have complained to the Premier League about Fulham's decision to rest players last weekend when they played (and lost) 2-0 to Hull City. Obviously, a weakened Fulham side is detrimental to West Ham (and arguably others in the same predicament down at the bottom) because to those sides struggling for points, seeing one of their rivals for survival gather them with comparative ease leaves a bad taste in their mouth.
You'll remember similar complaints when Wolves fielded practically a reserve side up at Old Trafford, a sacrifice/risk that their manager calculated as worthy. If you're not going to win against Manchester United, you might as well lose without losing players to injury. Utd's rivals might also disagree with these types of selections because it is, on paper, an easy three points. But that's not Man Utd's problem, is it? The same way it's not Fulham's problem if West Ham are absolute toilet.
Wolves lost three points at United, and won three against Burnley. Rather than end up with the one or nothing at all. Sure, it should be about glory and had Wolves shocked Utd...but then again the manager makes the final decision, and in this case it paid off for McCarthy. Much like it has in the eyes of Hodgson and their 2-1 win in the Europa League.
For the sake of footballing justice, yes, I agree every side should be at its most strongest in order for competition to be fair. But define strongest? Actually, don't bother because that's not your job - it's the managers. If Hodgson wants to play youth and reserves because he has prioritised his teams objectives (Europe being that priority) then the side that faced Hull was the strongest he could possibly field.
If West Ham are in such dire desperate times, they should perhaps look inwards at sorting out their inability to function as a cohesive unit. If a side is in trouble it's because they've dragged themselves down there and not because other teams are winning thanks to the odd (very rare) occasion a rival side has played an under-strength upper region side and won.
The footballing governing bodies should not legislate team selections to the nth degree. Even if the final game of the season a manager rests every first team player in a game that might decide someone else's fate - and yes, I know, the Hull/Fulham result might just have been that type of game - just not played on the final day. And nobody rests players for the sake of it, there's always a reason and that reason is always justified as far as the team doing the resting are concerned. It's the ones who are desperate who look for a way to claw back some hope.
The crux of the problem is that this form of complaint is driving towards the suggestion that a club should consider the plight of another club when they are making decisions based on their own ambitions. The rule about having to field a full-strength side is there to protect the integrity of the league - which it does perfectly fine.
But placing another club ahead of your own? In a parallel universe perhaps where a match is postponed to allow players to recover from a dodgy lasagne, perhaps.
Hodgson cares for nothing more than Fulham and their progression, so of course he's going to take a risk and sacrifice potential points for the sake of silverware in another competition.
It's a bitter pill to swallow, and I know that if Spurs had to rely on others to fail (a possibility in the run-in for 4th place) its still something completely out of our control and there is nothing we can do other than do the best in our own games - a destiny we can shape. If one of our rivals plays an under-strength side and gains points that places them above us, that's just the way the cookie crumbles. If it was the other way around, we'd be smiling our faces off.
So to go back to the actual rule that West Ham are arguing Fulham broke (from the BBC article covering this story):
The Premier League's E20 rule stipulates that clubs must field a full-strength side in all top-flight games.
Perhaps next time Hodgson should play a full-strength side and ask them to play at around 40% effort. Which matches the level that West Ham have been playing all season long. Which should restore some balance to the farce.
Reader Comments (18)
Too bad so sad. It's a long season and managers should be doing what's in the best interest of their club long term. Imagine if Harry would have rested more players along the way and used his squad. Perhaps, just perhaps, we'd be able to field a proper team for Sunderland and for Pompey. Perhaps some could argue that we have O'Hara, Keane and Hutton out on loan so it's no fair that we have to resort to Rose, Walker, Livermore or others because we have guys on loan. Would West Ham be complaining if this were the first game of the season? I think not. It's sour grapes. Fulham did what was in their best interest, perhaps West Ham should do the same and win a few games. COYS
next thing u know we will get done 4 fielding a weakened side 2morrow, fuck me how many more injuries and the scum have the fucking cheek 2 talk about injuries. At this rate even livermore will play 2morrow.
Just want to add, this article isn't having a dig at West Ham. Okay, perhaps a small dig, but I guess the point is a general one about who has the right to define what constitutes the strongest side a manager can field and wants to field.
It's different if a club takes the piss, but then, when does that happen?
This is a cleverly disguised chicken and egg question, and somewhat (egg-wise) appropriate and harmless Easter puzzle/bed story. Good work, spooky. :)
Praise be! Christ is risen. Unlike most of our team. Super Luka nuts are we, we're all Luka loopy.
I think West Ham should face action for being so shit they'll probably get relegated.
That's 6 easy points we'll miss out on next season. ;-)
Gomes
Walker
Bassong
Kaboul
Ekkoto
Bale
Modders
Livermore
Gujonson
Bentley
Pav
I have to get this off of my chest! Wet spam are an absolute disgrace and there appears to be no limit to the depths they are willing to sink. We need to get them out of the Premiership, they are a cancer and they need to be amputated and jettisoned now!
What annoys me is that West Ham themselves have chosen to rest players against top four sides ahead of game they felt were more winnable (except unlike other clubs who have done did they have failed the win the following game). So can Man Utd sue them if Chelsea win the leagu after they rested a host of players at the Bridge last month?
The new owners there have dragged west ham through even deeper poo. This distastful attempt to tarnish a club and a manager of such high values and tradition (Fulham and Hodgson) is a complete joke. Fulham have been nothing but a credit to the PL this year having carried the flag in Europe so well.
As a spurs fan, I don't hate West Ham. I have never understood why they hate us so much. However, they are making it very difficult not to enjoy their current plight.
Agree but the paying public should know before hand then decide of they wanna pay to see reserves
a cunt club with cunt owners and cunt fans. sod 'em.
Due to injuries and players out on loan, it appears that tomorrows team will be the weakest we have put out in the league this season.
Far from convinced we will get away with it and whilst this team might get past Portsmouth in the semi-final, if we don't get key players back for the games against Manure, L'Arse and the Chavs we could be in serious trouble.
If we had bought some reinforcements in January and the summer then we would have more options now.
Instead we turned a profit in the last two windows. Will look very short sighted if we narrowly miss out this time.
Ted,
I am a bit troubled with you waving a toy gun and trying to set blame on the Spurs management in case we don’t reach CL. I wish you were more specific; e.g. which are those awesome player(s) in particular that were available in January, and willing to ride the pine for the rest of the season, unless Spurs got hit with injuries of titanic and unprecedented magnitude. You should wait with your comment till Monday, as that is usual time for Monday morning quarterbacks to spill the REAL THRUTH from their bean-like brains. :)
beetleblues - why not say what you think ? My judgment after the the last two transfer windows was that the squad was not strong enough to get a CL spot. Great first XI but not enough beneath that to cope over a full season. Maybe that will be accurate and maybe not. But it is what I thought and a valid point to make. Funny thing is that you are not disagreeing with it at all - just saying shhhh !
Ted,
Your right. I think on the same lines (“the squad was not strong enough”) because I want Spurs to succeed just as any lillywhite. But I am not saying it because I also know that Harry and Levy did as much as they could (under the circumstances) to get us to where we are today, and there is more to come. Hell, roman empire was not built in a year either, so give it a time. And they are looking ahead. They signed Brazilian upcoming star, already are in the fight for The Iceman to be permanent deal, new beautiful stadium is ready to be built, etc. Look on the brighter side, mate. And of course, it always could have been much worse. HOPE is the lillywhite’s word and anyone using it should pay royalty to Levy. :)
Good article. Every manager rests players due to injury issues but that's a lot different from resting half the first team. Even so ultimately you have to look at your own performances not worry about other teams. This season as far as I can see Harry has put out the strongest team he can in every match (bar Palacios recently) and it's kept us up there. Walker was terrific against Pompey and I'm not worried about him playing however Dawson will be a big loss.
The one thing I've noticed this season that has impressed me above all else is the team spirit we now have something we haven't had for years. Maybe that will carry us through this afternoon maybe it won't but I think we should recognise how far we have come as a team over the last two seasons.
I think it should be no big deal if the team wants to rest there players.